The 63-year-old woman, from Sorgues in the country’s southern Vaucluse region, walked into her garden and fired several test shots from a 22-calibre rifle before turning the weapon on herself.

The dog then reportedly jumped towards the owner and knocked the gun aside, although the woman still suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. “At the moment she pulled the trigger, her dog jumped on her and diverted the shot,” a local police officer said, adding that the dog “probably sensed things and knocked into her to save her.”

The woman, who was found conscious by her husband, is recovering in hospital.